Day 87 - SoHo to Upper West Side, NYC

New Year's Eve!!

I'm spendng NYE in NYC!! Exciting! Except, of course, I'm indoors so might as well be anywhere else in the world but hey, I'm here!! Loving it.

We just had grapes at 6pm - a Spanish NYE midnight tradition at Spanish midnight. Even Isabella was eating grapes (or "foot" as she calls all fruit)

I've just given Isabella a bath and she's sung me the ABC song several times - so clever. Considering her mother speaks to her in Spanish, her father in French and she goes to school in English I think it's a miracle she can even walk to be honest. She's getting used to me and calls me by my full name "Nah-tah-lee-ah" even when I'm not there (I put this to the test by hiding while I was playing with her and she went to Maria asking "Natalia?" Very cute)

How could anyone not love this child?

 

We are staying up and won't be having dinner for a while so I thought I'd take this opportunity to post all my photos so that's what I'm going to go back and do now.

Day 86 - East Greenwich to SoHo, NYC

Bye Rhode Island!

Annie's father Jeff did all the manly things this morning like clearing the snow from the cars and the drive and making cornbread (not that I know that many men who make cornbread but it was darn good and I now wish I did know some!)

I then spent the morning talking to Annie's mum Liz about... I'm not sure exactly really but I definitely came away feeling very at ease with my thoughts. She is an artist and she showed me some of the things she is working on - I feel like making things may be what's missing from my life, she made it seem like a lot of hard work but well worth it in the end. I don't think I'd ever want to sell or show anything but I wonder if it might do my mental peace some good to be making things with my hands, especially when I get back to London and have no job...

Annie's parents and baby bro

Annie's fridge 

Annie's back yard - how cool would it be to grow up with this much snow to your name??

Beeg blue bug

I went out of my way to go see the big blue bug which Annie had insisted I go see. I'm not sure what kind of bug it's supposed to be but it is pretty big and I'd missed it on the way past Providence the first time because of the snow.

Bye bye car!!!

I gave back my car - no, I didn't cry, but... well, I almost did. It's been my travel buddy for 86 days and leaving it behind made the end of my trip feel very real. I was very lucky because they don't seem to have charged me the $250 drop-off fee (which my battered post-trip economy would greatly appreciate) but I will have to see if they chase me for it at a later date.

Hello Isabella! (and New York)

I got to my brother's house in time to see Isabella (my beeeeeautiful niece) before she went to bed and I was impressed that she remembered me! She's ridiculously gorgeous (objectively, honest!) she has huge eyes and looong eyelashes and she TALKS!

Maria is due to give birth any day now so is pretty fed up of being pregnant. She also has a cold so I mostly got to talk to her from a safety distance while she was in bed.

I was happy to get a chance to spend some time with Javi, Maria's brother, who told me all sorts of crazy stories about trips he's been on - I feel very fortunate that I've been so lucky on my trip!

This is a man that has survived many a holiday from hell

I'm staying in a hotel in SoHo which is nothing like London's Soho but is pretty cool. I got back around 1am but felt perfectly safe which was nice.

Day 85 - Cape Cod to East Greenwich

The Cod

I kept saying I was going to the Cod (instead of The Cape) so in my mind that's what it will always be. It was not how I was expecting it to be at all. For some reason I expected Cape Cod to be fancy pants but it's not! Or, at least it does a good impression of not being too fancy, I'm sure in reality it's ridiculously expensive to own a place there but when you're there it just seems rural and a bit provincial, I really liked it.

I saw the ocean a lot which always makes me happy and I chatted to a nice Park Ranger which always makes me happy too. A lot of the coast of the Cod is protected, it's a National Seashore which means it comes under the National Park Service somehow. I also saw some beautiful lighthouses.

 

 

As you can kind of see these lighthouses are no longer on the coast - they've been moved to protect them

Wouldn't you love a house on the Cod?

You could have a giant Santa

Or a Portaloo!

Tiniest fire station!

This museum is now a library. However, when they converted it they realised they couldn't take out the boat from the second floor...

... so it's still there, surrounded by books!

Children read the funniest things

This helps with your ship-spotting!

Snowstorm

I had been warned by several people about the snowstorm coming my way but I didn't really know what to expect. Even the local radio broadcast was interrupted for a snowstorm warning which was a little worrying considering I had no choice but to drive through it.

Most of the way from the Cod to Rhode Island was ok but towards the end it got very snowy and I was seriously worried about crashing into other cars, a couple of times I came pretty close. Fortunately Annie had warned me that people around here pride themselves on driving crazy so I was a little prepared.

At one point it was snowing so hard that even though I was going at quite a pace it looked like I was not moving at all because of the snow coming towards me - very strange feeling.

Annie's family

I'm staying with Annie's family in East Greenwich in Rhode Island tonight. So far I've had a yummy home cooked dinner (ready and waiting for me as I walked in the door!) and a beer with her brothers in the barn -now I'm watching an old movie with her parents and the dogs and it's blissful proper family time.

Day 84 - Florence to Cape Cod

I got away!

I feel as proud of myself as I did when I managed to leave California and all my friends there. This time I was leaving family so it was even harder. I had a really nice time in Florence, I felt right at home and I didn't have to worry about anything so it was extra relaxing. There was my aunt's cooking. My cousin's never-ending patience for playing cards with me. My uncle John's ridiculous knowledge of everything (saves on a lot of googling) Oh, and of course the dog, the cats, the birds... I'm not a fan of animals myself but when you're surrounded by people who love animals as much as these do it's impossible not to become attached to the little twerps.

On the road again

What the...? Seriously, what?

I'm in Cape Cod for the night, having called every single motel in Provincetown (at the tip of the Cape) and realising they were superexpensive I've settled for a nice motel in South Yarmouth. Tomorrow I will drive all the way up, have a good look around and then drive to Rhode Island where I'll be staying with Annie's family for the night. I can't wait!

Man, I love bridges.  Not that you could tell from the thousands of pictures of them on my blog...

Oh, and sunsets. Big fan.

Day 83 - Florence

SNOW!!

This morning we had to clear the driveway of the snow that fell last night. It was great!! I'm sure I'd come to hate it if I had to do it every day but as a one off it was pretty cool!! My uncle has a snow blower that does most of the work but you still have to shovel a buttload of snow by hand.

That's a lot of snow to have fallen in one night, right?

I was not surprised to see big snowploughs...

... but I was surprised to learn that any Joe with a truck can pop a scoop on the front and freelance-plough!

First snow walk

My aunt has a blind dog she adopted from somewhere hot, like Arizona or somewhere. This is her first proper winter so she had never come across snow. We took her out for her first proper snow walk and she LOVED it. Didn't really understand it but definitely enjoyed it.

"Hi, I'm Rollie, nice to smell ya"

"Whoa, it's so cold!"

"And it smells of... cold?"

A few days ago I spoke to Amazon about replacing my broken Kindle and they told me I would have to pay for a new one because they no longer stock the one I have. I gave in and bought a fancy new Kindle Fire HD and that's what I'm writing this on . It's pretty cool though I guess not as satisfying to use as an actual iPad. Not that this is an iPad substitute of course. Oh well, it's a lot cheaper!

I've spent most of my time in Florence playing cards and doing a glow in the dark 1000 piece puzzle.

I realise there are a lot of typos in this- the keyboard on my new Kindle is a bit pants...

Frozen margaritas. Nuff said.